THE PINE-APPLE FAMILY. 21 5 



the decorative species. Their diversity of character and per- 

 sistent foliage, added to the brilliance of their flowers, ought to 

 make these plants much more popular than they now are in 

 our gardens. Many of the species seed freely, and are readily 

 propagated by sowing on pans of fine sandy earth, after which 

 place the pans in a close case on a genial bottom-heat of about 

 75. The species of Bilbergia rarely perfect seeds in our hot- 

 houses unless carefully fertilised ; and this is true of many 

 other Bromeliads. B. zebrina has ripened seeds in Con- 

 tinental gardeps, as also has B. vittata in the Luxembourg 

 garden. One fruit, we are told (see * Belg. Hort.,' 1875, P- I20 )> 

 was obtained by fertilising flowers of B. vittata with pollen 

 from other flowers on the same plant, which had been kept 

 in a paper in the pocket for three days ; and two other fruits 

 on the same plant were produced by fertilising the stigmas 

 with pollen from B. pallescens, this pollen having also been 

 preserved in the same manner. It is interesting to observe 

 that flowers impregnated with pollen in a fresh state did not 

 produce fruit indeed, the preservation of the pollen in this 

 case had a beneficial influence ; and hybridisers should bear 

 this little fact in mind, especially when operating on Brom- 

 eliads. Nearly all the plants in this group have a tendency 

 to throw up offsets after flowering ; and these may be taken 

 off and struck in heat as cuttings, or they may be allowed to 

 remain on the parent stock until they naturally throw out roots, 

 after which they can be removed and potted in the usual way. 

 I may here allude to an ingenious method practised in order 

 to induce plants to produce their suckers. A short poker or 

 iron bar is heated red-hot, and plunged down the centre of 

 the plant, but only just far enough to stop the central growth ; 

 and as a natural consequence, the vital force of the plant is 

 then diverted to the production of lateral shoots and suckers, 

 which are taken off and propagated in the ordinary way. The 

 Pine-apple was originally discovered and described by Jean 

 de Lery in his voyage to Brazil in 1555, and was first brought 

 to this country by Lord Garland in 1690, and soon after it 

 was cultivated by Rose, gardener to Charles II. Like most 

 . other cultivated plants it is highly variable, the variation being 

 in many cases merely cultural, while some of the forms now 

 grown in our gardens are seminal varieties ; and doubtless this 

 fruit might still be much improved by crossing distinct forms, 

 and carefully selecting the resulting offspring. As a rule, how- 

 ever, Pines, if left to themselves i.e., if not cross-fertilised 

 rarely produce fertile seeds, this sterility having been favoured 

 in our gardens during the past two centuries, owing to the 



